Covid-19 or the corona virus pandemic has brought distress, fear and anxiety to almost every country in the world. Some of you might have contracted and recovered from the disease by now. Some of you might be grieving a loss of a loved one due to this ruthless disease and trying to come to terms with the demise. And some of you might be trying to resume your employment and normal day today routines after a period of lockdown or curfew while some might have lost their employment by now due to the job cuts by the respective organizations they work for. This is the harsh reality of the covid-19 pandemic.
No storm lasts forever.
As the saying goes, no storm is going to last forever. Likewise, this pandemic will also end. History gives us many examples of pandemics that have claimed millions of lives around the world and finally faded away. One good example is the H1N1 influenza outbreak of 1918–1919. During that time doctors and public health officials had fewer weapons than they do today to counter the pandemic. This situation continued for more than two years and two waves occurred. During this period the disease infected more than five hundred million and killed between 50 million and 100 million people. The disease ended because natural infections conferred immunity on those who recovered.
Another example of a pandemic is Bubonic plague that has struck several times in the past 2000 years and has killed millions of people around the world. According to Mary Fissel, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, there have been three great waves of the plague.
How will Covid-19 pandemic end?
Experts speculate that the termination of this pandemic will involve a multi -faceted approach. Social control measures will have to be continued. To ease symptoms new anti-viral medications should be formulated. A vaccine needs to be developed. Vaccine research has been accelerated but it has been estimated that it would take 12 to 18 months for a successful vaccine to be developed provided that everything goes smoothly. A vaccine should give someone immunity so they do not become sick if they are exposed. According to the concept known as the herd immunity, if around 60% of the population is immunised the virus will not be able to cause outbreaks.
Living with the disease.
So it is clear that we will have to live with this disease for at least two plus years. How are we going to cope with this situation? The shutting down or imposing curfew in countries around the world can’t be carried out as a long term solution. This is not sustainable because the social and economic damage will be very high. Consequently countries will have to resume their day to day economic activities. So people will have to commence their occupations and business activities. But people will have to work under conditions and circumstances which are different to ones that prevailed before the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Applying the 7 habits framework for successful & effective living during the pandemic.
Stephen R. Covey, the world renowned leadership authority, family expert, teacher and organizational consultant formulated the 7 habits framework. This is a timeless, principle centred paradigm which is applicable to our lives in any situation. Let us have a look at how we can apply this to our lives in these challenging and crucial times.
Being Proactive.
What is meant by being proactive? This means being able to take an initiative. But this goes way beyond taking initiative. This is the first habit of the seven habits paradigm. As Mr Covey explains in his best- selling book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ‘’ a proactive person is able to subordinate an impulse to a value. Being reactive is the opposite of being proactive. Reactive people are usually driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions or by their environment. But proactive people are driven by their values. Proactive people are still influenced by external stimuli such as social, physical or psychological. But their response to the stimuli, conscious or unconscious, is a value based choice or response.
How can we be proactive during Covid-19 pandemic?
As the World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) instructs to communities you should use personal protective equipment as and when necessary. You should wear masks when you go out of your homes. Sometimes you may find it difficult to keep wearing a mask at your work place, while you’re shopping or while walking in the street etc. It will be a disturbance or an inconvenience to you since this is a new measure that you have to follow and you will find it messy in the beginning. But by doing this you can not only protect yourself from an unwanted infection of Covid-19 but you also protect others in the society in case if you are infected.
By being proactive, you can subordinate that feeling which urges you to not to wear the mask since it is troublesome or disturbing, to the value that you have newly adopted i.e. wear a mask and protect yourself and society. Adopting and adhering to this value will save you and the society around you from so much trouble.
According to guidelines released by WHO, CDC and other health authorities around the world, once you go outdoors, you should do hand washing using 70% alcohol or soap and water for 20 seconds whenever you touch a door knob, control button of an elevator so forth and so on. Moreover, during this pandemic you are required to follow social distancing measures too. In terms of the CDC guidelines on social distancing you should stay at least 6 feet away from other people when you’re outside your home and you should not gather in groups. By learning to be proactive you will find it easy to convert these new measures into effective new habits that you should cultivate in order to ensure your safety and the society.
Begin with the end in mind.
This is the second habit of seven habits paradigm. This principle is associated with setting a mission, objectives and goals for your life. According to Dr Covey, begin with the end in mind means beginning today with the image, picture or paradigm of the end of your life as the frame of reference for your whole life. So everything in your life will be examined with respect to this paradigm. This principle means starting with a precise and clear understanding of your destination.
How can we apply this habit to the pandemic situation?
You can have short term and long term goals in your life. You need to have a short term goal regarding your behaviour during Covid-19 pandemic. Your short term goal would be “I will change my behaviour so that it will help me to minimise the chance of me getting infected by Covid-19. Then you can examine time to time whether your current behaviour is in keeping with your goal. This new behaviour will help you immensely to practice essential measures such as wearing masks when going to public places, hand washing and social distancing while you’re away from home. So beginning with the end in mind will help you to stay safe during novel corona virus outbreak.
Put first things first.
This is the third habit of the seven habits. The third habit is associated with prioritizing activities in your life. As Dr Covey explains in his epic book it’s not the effort that brings enduring success. ‘’Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day’’.
The time management matrix introduced by Dr Covey is as follows.
| Urgent | Not Urgent | |
| Important | 1 | 2 |
| Not Important | 3 | 4 |
The time management matrix lists your activities according to their importance and their urgency.
In the context of the current situation the important and urgent (Quadrant 1) activities may include going to work, shopping for groceries and food or sending your children to school. Your important but not urgent activities might be planning your new business, new product development, building your house, studying for your post graduate degree etc.
In these times of crisis you should prioritize your needs, obligations and duties. You should go outside your residence only for activities that fall into quadrants 1 and 2. Other activities that falls into quadrants 3 and 4 should be minimised as much as possible.
For instance before the Covid-19 pandemic you might have gone out for shopping 3 or 4 times a week. But, now you should make a list of important items and their quantities required for a week and purchase them once a week. Decide the date and time of shopping according to your convenience. When deciding this you should avoid rush hours or busy hours. As mentioned earlier you have to avoid public gatherings, crowded places in order to minimise the chance of getting infected. It will be very clear to you by now that by prioritizing activities that requires you to go outside your homes, you will be able to mitigate the risk of contracting the infection.
Think win/win.
The fourth habit is think win/win. As Dr Stephen R Covey puts it, think win/win is the habit of effective interpersonal leadership. When you step into the domain of interdependence from independence, irrespective of your position, you assume a role of leadership. So you are able to influence others. Win/win is the best paradigm of human interaction. The win/win philosophy ensures that both parties involved in the transaction or agreement benefit from it. So the agreement, transaction or the solution is satisfying and beneficial to all the parties involved.
In his best-selling book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” Dr Covey goes on to mention the 6 paradigms of human interaction. They are as follows.
- Win/Win
- Win/Lose
- Lose/Win
- Lose/Lose
- Win
- Win/Win or No Deal
Out of the above mentioned paradigms win/win is the best and the most reasonable way of interaction. This means that your success is not achieved at the expense of the other person’s success. Win/win is based on the abundance mentality which means that there is plenty out there for everybody.
Think win/win comes to play when you interact with others. In life you have to play various roles. You have to deal with your family members as a husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, sister, brother etc. You have to associate with friends. As a professional, you will have to liaise with your team members, senior management and subordinates. In the event of you being an employer you are required to interact with your employees. If you are a public servant you should interact with the general public. If you happen to be a politician you might serve in the capacity of a senator, a member of parliament, a minister, a prime minster or the president of a country and you have to interact with the general public.
During the Corona pandemic your spouse and your children may be confined to home for prolonged time periods and due to this they might get depressed, feel sad and lose their enthusiasm. You will find the win/win paradigm very useful in dealing with their requests and grievances. Both you and your loved ones in the family would find the win/win agreements and negotiations mutually beneficial and relieving and both parties would be happy.
It has been reported that during the lockdown period domestic violence in many countries around the world has escalated. Most of them are due to the aggravation of minor disagreements that have taken place between husbands and wives or between parents and children. A win/win approach might definitely have given proper solutions to these conflicts. So please use this valuable and principal based approach in settling your family issues during these trying times.
In the event of you being an executive or a manager in an organisation, you will find that your team members and subordinates undergo numerous hardships in the course of the pandemic. Because of these they will face various issues in carrying out their day today job functions. By adopting the win/win approach in finding solutions for their issues you will be able to cultivate a good relationship with them. You and your organization will benefit immensely from this relationship in the long term.
If you are a public servant or a politician you have a very important role to play in finding solutions to burning issues the general public have faced. In most parts of the world people are facing uncertainties. They have lost their employment, their businesses and some are grieving the loss of loved ones. Some are shackled by the poverty that has been brought upon them by this unprecedented disease. By inculcating the habit think win/win in your life you will be able to provide positive and extremely beneficial solutions to the masses who’re suffering.
These are just a few examples where you can use think win/win for productive and effective interaction with others. So use this great tool according to the context of the situation and achieve mutually beneficial, just and fair solutions and agreements.
Seek first to understand and then to be understood.
This is the fifth habit. This is essential in carrying out effective and fruitful interactions such as negotiations and dialogs with your loved ones, friends, subordinates, colleagues, citizens etc. In order to understand problems, opinions and grievances of other people you need to listen to them. Dr Covey outlines five forms of listening.
- Ignoring the person
You don’t really listen to the other person and ignores him.
- Pretending to be listening
You pretend to be listening to the person but you are not actually listening.
- Selective listening.
You listen only to certain or selected parts of the things that the other person says.
- Attentive listening
In this method you pay attention and focus your energy on the words being said.
- Empathic listening
In empathic listening you listen with the intent to understand.
Empathic listening.
This is the form of listening that you should practice when you put the habit “seek first to understand and then to be understood” in to practice. In empathic listening you get inside another person’s frame of reference. You look through it. You see the world the way they see it, understand their paradigm and you feel what they feel.
Under normal circumstances majority of people do not listen with the intention to understand. They listen with the motive of replying. They see everything through their own paradigms and preach their life stories on to the lives of others.
Because of the above mentioned behaviour, Dr Covey explains that people listen autobiographically and respond in one of following ways.
- Evaluate the situation
Either agree or disagree.
- Probe
People ask questions from their own frame of reference.
- Advise
They give advice based on their own experience.
- Interpret
People try to understand others, explain their motives, their behaviour based on the listener’s own motives and behaviour.
In the absence of empathic listening the person who discuss his/her problem with you lose the faith that he/she has in you. He/she becomes disappointed of you and would no longer seek advice from you. Conflicts can arise between that person and you. So you need to practise empathic listening to understand the actual problem of the other person and increase the level of confidence that the person has in you. So you should seek first to understand. Only then you should seek to be understood. This habit is vital in the successful implementation of the 4th habit think win/win.
Seeking to be understood is also essential in arriving at win/win solutions. You should present your own ideas effectively for the other parties involved to understand. Only then a win/win solution can be achieved.
During this crisis as I explained in the 4th habit you would be required to interact with various people in different capacities. So you should put the 5th habit into action thoroughly in order to successfully practice the 4th habit. Because think win/win goes hand in hand with seek first to understand and then to be understood.
Synergize
The simple meaning of synergy is that whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergize is the sixth habit in the seven habits paradigm and is an essential component of interdependence. The other 5 habits that preceded this habit prepare you to create synergy.
You can have synergy in your family, your work place, your community, in your country etc. and you will reap invaluable benefits. Synergize means that, as a group you work together for a common goal. You create an environment which is conducive for each member to express his/her ideas, learn them and listen to them. Then you do brainstorming to pick up the most creative idea.
Today most countries around the world are facing economic crisis. If this habit, synergize can be used among people of these countries in rebuilding the economies, overwhelming results will be gained. There is no other time important than this when you need to practice this habit in your families. Due to the pandemic many families and households are suffering from various hardships. Due to loss of lives of family members, loss of employments, and/or collapse of family businesses so many families are suffering. Practising synergy among parents and children to find solutions for economic, emotional and other problems will definitely bring valuable results.
Many organizations have suffered due to Covid-19 pandemic. Creating a synergistic environment among the employees would create an amazing opportunity for the organization to reach new heights that would compensate for the losses incurred.
Synergy is a very significant tool and a habit that you can utilize in your life to bring about growth and prosperity in your family, your organization, your country etc. During this Covid-19 pandemic this habit would even be more useful to create unprecedented growth through creativity.
Sharpen the saw
The seventh habit of the Seven habits paradigm, sharpen the saw encompasses all the other habits since it makes all the others possible. This means renewing and toning of your life. In order to practise this habit which is a quadrant 2 activity, you have to be proactive. Human life is made up of four dimensions. They are namely physical, spiritual, mental and social dimensions.
Physical Dimension
The physical dimension deals with maintaining our body in proper order. This means caring for our physical body. Physical dimension involves exercising regularly and effectively and eating the right foods in right amounts. This is a very important quadrant 2 activity and most of us don’t do it since it is not urgent. So sooner or later it becomes a quadrant 1 activity making it very urgent for us because of the health problems we encounter.
In the context of Covid-19 pandemic, medical authorities all over the world has emphasized time and again that regular exercising and reducing fatty foods and foods with high amount of carbohydrates will increase your chances of surviving the pandemic. The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) recently stated that obesity is a big risk for Covid-19. It has been reported that if you suffer from hypertension (high blood pressure) diabetes, cancer and diseases concerning lungs you are more likely to suffer from complications if you contract corona virus. This will increase your mortality. In eastern countries like Sri Lanka herbs such as coriander and tree turmeric is consumed by people in order to boost immunity against bacteria and viruses. Research has also proved that tree turmeric has anti-viral properties and coriander has anti-bacterial properties. So consuming these herbs can boost your immunity against Covid -19 virus.
The Spiritual Dimension
The spiritual dimension is involved with spiritual aspect of your life. Spiritual dimension provides leadership to your life. This is highly related to habit 2 i.e. begin with the end in mind. So renewing the spiritual dimension on a regular basis sets the stage for proper practicing of Habit 2.
You can meditate, engage in prayer, read scriptures of your religion that provides guidance to your life. This will definitely decrease your stress levels and reduce the conflicts of your minds.
The Mental Dimension
This involves your mental development. According to Dr Stephen R Covey your mental development happens due to the formal education you get from school and/or university or any other institute of higher education. But as soon as you leave school or university we no longer invest time and energy for continued mental development. Informal education outside classroom will definitely hone and expand your mind. You can develop the habit of reading great books by distinguished authors, participate in training programs by renowned life coaches and leadership experts and watch inspiring, educative and motivating TV programmes.
Writing is also an important way of sharpening the mental saw. You can maintain a journal of your thoughts, experiences, insights and learning.
The Social/Emotional Dimension
The social and emotional dimensions are inevitably interconnected and this is because our emotional dimension is constantly manifested in our relationships. The physical, spiritual and mental dimensions are directly related to habits 1, 2 and 3 while the emotional and spiritual dimension is related to habits 4, 5 and 6. You don’t need to allocate specific time to renew the social and emotional dimension just as you do for renewing physical, spiritual and mental dimensions. You can renew this dimension during your normal daily interactions with people. The social emotional dimension can be renewed regularly by applying habits 4, 5 and 6 to our interactions with other people and by this we can achieve public victory.
It must be very clear to you by now that the Seven Habits paradigm is a very useful and an effective tool for leading a successful and a productive life. You are sure to benefit from this timeless paradigm even more, during Covid-19 pandemic. When you inculcate these habits in your lives you will definitely find so many ways that you can apply these principles to find solutions to numerous problems that you are faced with, during this pandemic.
